This document outlines an assessment task for a public health report addressing a staff shortage issue at Cockatoo Rest Hospital, particularly related to increasing hospitalisations for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), stroke, and falls injuries. The task requires analysis of hospitalisation rates, risk factors, and public health prevention strategies for one selected health condition, with specific formatting and referencing guidelines. It emphasizes the importance of addressing healthcare challenges in rural areas and the need for sustainable public health solutions.

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This assessment provides you with the opportunity to apply your knowledge of population
health principles and epidemiology to a public health issue in Cockatoo Rest.
CONTEXT:
The Cockatoo Rest Hospital has alerted the community that it is currently experiencing a staff
shortage, especially in their nursing workforce. It is believed that increasing numbers of
hospitalisations for selected health conditions might also be contributing to the problem. Three
conditions are of particular concern: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), stroke,
and falls injuries. Given the recognised difficulties of attracting and retaining health care
professionals in rural areas, the local authorities believe that the development of public health
prevention strategies might be an efficient and sustainable approach to reduce hospitalisations
related to these conditions and hence alleviate pressures on the health system in the short and
longer term.
YOUR TASK:
As a member of the Cockatoo Rest Public Health team, you have been asked to write a report
on one of the three conditions (i.e., you will need to choose either Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease OR Falls Injury OR Stroke to write your report), which should cover (1) the
hospitalisation rate for that condition within the Cockatoo Rest community and a comparison
to Australian statistics, (2) potential risk factors related to the condition; and (3) public health
prevention strategies.
Details for each section are provided below:
Hospitalisation rates:
The table below reports the number of hospitalisations within Cockatoo Rest in 2010 by
selected age groups for the three health conditions:
Chronic Obstructive
Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
Stroke Falls injury
Age Group
Number of
Hospitalisations
Age Group
Number of
Hospitalisations
Age Group
Number of
Hospitalisations
55-69 9 55-64 2 65-69 3
70-84 18 65-74 3 70-74 5
85+ 5 75-84 6 75-79 8
85+ 4 80-84 9
85+ 40
SP5 Population Health 2015 (HLTH 1038)
Assignment 2: Essay (40%)

2. Assignment 2: HLTH 1038 Population Health SP5 2015
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Your task is to use the above data and calculate the hospitalisation rate for the condition you
have chosen for the Cockatoo Rest Community for 2010 and compare it to relevant national
statistics. Hospitalisation rate is defined as the number of hospital separations (i.e., when a
patient is discharged) over a period of time for a given population. Although we have not
discussed hospitalisation rates in the course, you can assume it is like a period prevalence
where the events or cases are the hospitalisations. Information on the Cockatoo Rest
Population is presented by age group and gender in the Cockatoo Rest archive on the course
site. This section should also include a comparison of hospitalisation rates in Cockatoo Rest
with an Australian estimate you have found to determine whether hospitalisation rates are
higher in Cockatoo Rest than elsewhere in Australia.
Risk factors
Your report should also include a section on the potential risk factors that might be
contributing to an increase in hospitalisation rates for the condition you have chosen. In this
section, you will need to assess the literature to identify factors associated with hospitalisations
of your chosen condition. Your risk factors should not only reflect individual (person factors)
characteristics but also factors related to the community itself (place factors) and/or time (time
factors). You should also discuss whether these risk factors are modifiable or not. You should
use at least one peer-reviewed study investigating a risk factor for the condition and discuss
the type of study design used in that study.
Public health strategy
Your report should also outline two public health prevention strategies targeting one person
and one community (place) factor you have identified in the previous section. You should
clearly indicate how the strategy is going to impact on the risk factor and/or minimise the
impact of the risk factor on your chosen condition.
Structure
The report should follow the following structure:
1. Introduction: Description of the problem, overview of report (4 marks)
2. Hospitalisation rates (see instructions above; 8 marks)
3. Risk factors (see instructions above; 8 marks)
4. Public health prevention strategies (see instructions above; 8 marks)
5. Conclusions: Summary of the main points of the proposal (4 marks)
6. Reference list: Both in text references and the reference list need to be formatted
according to the UniSA (2015) Harvard author-date style (4 marks)
Format requirements (4 marks):
The assignment should be titled “Hospitalisations Report for Cockatoo Rest” and your name and student
ID number should be included under the title. The assignment should be saved as a Word document.
This assignment should not exceed 2000 words (which includes in-text references but not the reference
list or tables). Assessors will do a quick word count and any text exceeding the 2000 word limit will be
highlighted and NOT assessed (please note that the word limit will be strictly applied). There is no
minimum word limit but you need to make sure you have addressed all points. Text should be

3. Assignment 2: HLTH 1038 Population Health SP5 2015
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formatted with 1.5 spacing and size 12 font. For tables/graphs you may use single (1.0) spacing and 10
point font (but no smaller than this).
Submission
Please submit your assignment through learnonline. The file must be labelled with your name and
assignment number (e.g., John Smith Assignment 2). You do not need a cover sheet.
All assignments will be automatically assessed by Turnitin. Assignments demonstrating similarity will
be reviewed for academic misconduct, so it is very important that you read your Turnitin reports and
make any necessary changes. Turnitin compares your assignment against all assignments in the Turnitin
databases AND all electronic resources such as the web or library databases and provides a similarity
report. The report highlights text, images or tables which is similar to another source and calculates a
percentage. The percentage on its own means very little, because if you have referenced sources, then
these references should be identified by Turnitin as being similar to library databases or the original
source. For any assignment where you are required to use references, the similarity report percentage
will never be zero (0%).
When using Turnitin, you MUST OPEN and READ the Turnitin report, not just look at the similarity
percentage. Your Turnitin report should ALWAYS show your references/reference list as being similar or
the same as another source. BUT unless you have directly quoted (and correctly referenced text as a
direct quote), there should no other text identified as similar to another source. If Turnitin has
highlighted areas of text within your assignment that is not a direct quote and referenced as such, this is
likely to be word for word copying from a source or paraphrasing of the source; and this is plagiarism. It
is always worth reading your Turnitin report and if needed, amend your assignment BEFORE you submit
the final version. Please note that it can take over 24 hours to generate a Turnitin report or longer in
peak periods. Please also note that suspected plagiarism cases will be referred to an Academic Integrity
Officer. For further information please access the following resource:
https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252146
Assessment
This assignment is worth 40% of the marks for this course. The marking scheme can be found within the
Assessment section of the course site (Assignment 2 assessment guidelines). Late submissions penalties
will be applied as per the School of Nursing and Midwifery policy:
 Late submissions accrue 10% deduction per day or part thereof. As the assignment is worth 40
marks, a deduction of 4 marks per day will apply.
 Assignments submitted after 5 days will not be marked.
We will aim to upload your marks between two to three weeks following the submission deadline.
Marking will be based on the rubric which is available on the course site.
**PLEASE NOTE**
Students are advised that the topic of this assessment task may raise issues in relation to previous or
current experiences. If you are experiencing difficulties as a result, we encourage you to speak to your
lecturer, tutor or the counsellors available via the Learning and Teaching Unit or seek assistance via this
link: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/counsellingservices